ok,

we have wireless networking at our office,

I need my winnt.sif to auto generate a new Name for every computer it is isntalled on.

ie Station1, Station2, Station3, Station4 .... you get the picture.

how can i do this? i went to unattended.msfn.org but could not find any ref.

did the search thing and came up empty.

I'm pretty sure it can't be done with winnt.sif. What you might be able to do is to rename the computer at the T12 stage with a batch file and use some kind of algorithm for creating random names.

Or you can leave it blank and just put it in manually during setup.

i recall before that if u leave it blank it auto generates a random chain of alpha numeric characters.

Change to DefaultHide instead of FullUnattended in UnattendMode, and manually correct the name at instal time. it works for me.

I want something "AUTOMATED"

I think it's possible to use a list of names, and installs will use one at a time, but it requires a floppy.

Why not a batch, using batpize.exe, that checks for a file on a network share, to change it afterwards ?

I'm pretty sure it can't be done with winnt.sif. What you might be able to do is to rename the computer at the T12 stage with a batch file and use some kind of algorithm for creating random names.

this is the only way it can be done. i use it.

With my RIS setups the ComputerName field has %MACHINENAME% for it's entry value. It has me wondering if you could use a method similar to Pyron's Driver method.

That is using a fake setup.exe in order to run a batch file ahead of the genuine setup.exe. For instance Dell has a DOS utility for setting and reading the Dell asset tag from the BIOS. My theory is that if you can set the environment variable %MACHINENAME% to that asset tag, you'd be all set.

Another possibility would be some DOS utility that has the ability to read BIOS strings. I suppose the main requirement would be that the utility be able to pass values.

A totally different method I was thinking about, but had not yet tried is to make a seperate WINNT.SIF for each computer. Make a seperate i386 directory for each computer and use a multiboot app (EZBoot) to generate a menu. Using the Optimize feature of UltraISO, all of the files in i386 except for WINNT.SIF would be identical and thus only recorded one time.

Any thoughts or comments?

All you have to do is to Add those lines into your unattended file:

[userData]

ComputerName=*

[setupMgr]

ComputerName0=Alpha

ComputerName1=Bravo

ComputerName2=Charlie

ComputerName3=Delta

ComputerName4=Echo

-M

All you have to do is to Add those lines into your unattended file:

[userData]

    ComputerName=*

[setupMgr]

    ComputerName0=Alpha

    ComputerName1=Bravo

    ComputerName2=Charlie

    ComputerName3=Delta

    ComputerName4=Echo

-M

and on which point of setup you choose the desired name?

ok,

we have wireless networking at our office,

I need my winnt.sif to auto generate a new Name for every computer it is isntalled on.

ie  Station1, Station2, Station3, Station4 .... you get the picture.

how can i do this? i went to unattended.msfn.org but could not find any ref.

did the search thing and came up empty.

He don't wanna chooseit ! Anyways I recommand to use setupmgr.exe From your original XP Cd [CD:\SUPPORT\TOOLS\DEPLOY.CAB] There's a place to do is easylly.

-M

@army20

That's the list I was thinking, but now you got me curious.

Does it work from a CD, how does it knows which have been used, by scanning the network ?

You know What ¿ ... I've never tried it !

actually i hv that already. it only works if you are NOT using a wireless LAN.